a writer's piece of the pie

Is it wrong to change my Love at First Sight Blogfest scene? Originally, I posted a snippet from my brand spankin’ new romantic/suspense WIP, based in Canada. But now that I’m looking it over, it isn’t as romantic as I’d like. Sorry, but I had just finished writing the scene and (of course) I thought it was perfect for Blogfest. Upon hindsight, I have changed my mind. Instead (because I enjoy making up my own rules) I have submitted a scene from Nightlings, my paranormal romance series. Like I’ve said, I don’t actually have a love-at-first-sight scene with these characters, but I’m rather fond of this scene, and it’s plenty steamy for Valentine’s Day.You’ll notice this post is significantly shorter than the last snippet 🙂

A little backstory: Two vampires, Caleb and Kate (you may have already read their author/character interviews) have been fighting their growing attraction for one another. Unfortunately, current events keep bringing them together. The scene below is one such scene. While at an annual ball involving the three different Nightling races, Kate is dancing with the Vampire King, Gabriel—who also happens to be Caleb’s cousin. A little family rivalry, perhaps?

Note: This is an excerpt from a never before seen chapter—meaning, it is unedited by both my critique group and my partner. As always, feel free to comment and critique.

Caleb had managed to distract himself from Kate by mingling with their foreign dignitaries. Unfortunately, he’d only made it halfway through the First Dance when his eyes betrayed him and honed in on Kate like a magnet. She was drop dead gorgeous tonight, just like every night, but tonight, she was in Gabriel’s arm. As they twirled around the dance floor, she laughed at something he’d said.

Damn it, Gabe.

He was probably using his charm on her.

The bastard.

It had been hell watching Kate dance with his cousin. The First Dance was similar to a waltz—very classy with no real sexual undertones, but Gabriel still managed to make his dance with Kate look intimate.

Fucking pervert…

Caleb had to stop this. His cousin was seriously crossing a line, even if he didn’t know there was a line to be crossed. As if scripted to piss Caleb off, Gabe leaned in and whispered something against Kate’s neck. Son of a bitch. He had to stop this and he had just the opportunity.

The First Dance opened with only the three Immortal King’s and their dance partners. As the dance continued, members of the royal families were expected to chime in, followed by advisors. By the end of the dance, anyone could join in; the ball had officially begun. Luckily, it was halfway through the song, and time for the royal family to join the dance. It wasn’t exactly proper to steal the dance partner of a king, but Caleb didn’t care. If Gabe wanted to bitch about it later—big whoop; there wasn’t a rule against it.

Caleb didn’t remember making his way onto the dance floor. One moment he was standing near the head table, and the next, he was placing a firm hand on Gabriel’s right shoulder.

“Cousin,” he said, glancing at Gabe before looking to Kate and offering her his hand. “You can’t expect me to do work of finding her if you’re the only one who gets to dance with her.”

Gabe chuckled and stepped away from Kate. “Be my guest, Caleb,” he said. Then, so that only Caleb could hear, “Take your prize.”

******

What was he doing? Was he crazy? Did he not understand that she’d put a stop to…to whatever was going on between them, the night before? She didn’t want this. Well, she did but she couldn’t—shouldn’t—want this. But here he was, taking her hand in one of his and pulling her against him with the other.

Electricity sparked in her arm when she placed her left hand on his shoulder and settled her body into his hold. His muscles were hard, his steps confident. Her mind began a picture show of last night’s highlights. His touch. His kiss—it was all too much, too good.

“You’re blushing,” he said, his voice deep. Stepping into motion, he forced her to dance with him.

“I’m pissed,” she spat at him, then looked around to make sure she hadn’t attracted any unwanted attention. She hadn’t; the other dancers looked only at their partners. When she looked back at Caleb she was annoyed to see he was trying to hide a grin. “Is something funny?”

“Just wondering why you’re upset…”

“Because of you!”

“Me? What did I do?”

“You’re dancing with me!”

“And dancing makes you mad?”

“Dancing with you makes me mad. You make me mad.”

“Why’s that? I thought we got along well last night…”

“Why’s that?” She repeated, angry that he seemed so have forgotten that she’d put a stop to their…encounter. “Last night’s why’s that!”

“You didn’t enjoy kissing me?”

“What?” She stumbled but he pulled her harder against himself to keep her from falling. “I…it was…last night was… It doesn’t matter. It happened, now it’s done with. I won’t happen again.”

“Won’t it?”

“I thought I’d made it clear—

“By running off? I suppose it could be taken that way. Of course, it could also mean other things…”

“Other things? Like what—no! Nevermind, don’t answer that; I don’t want to know.” She breathed in deeply to try to clear her head of the images still flashing in her head, but she only managed to breath in the scent of him and that only made the images stronger. “Caleb, I can’t do—

“Shh,” he said softly. “It’s just a dance, Kate. I’m only dancing.”

His eyes were so kind that she felt hypnotized—lost in their depth. He was right. They were only dancing. It wasn’t like she’d make some crazy mistake like falling in love with him, right here on the dance floor. This was safe. Two people, dancing, in a room filled with people. There was no danger in that.

She didn’t reply; only nodded her head once in acceptance, then followed his lead as they danced.

The longer they danced, the more the music entranced her. Kate didn’t fight the images of the night before; rather, she indulged in them. And she couldn’t keep her eyes off of Caleb. His face was a work of art: a chiseled perfection. He had a strong jaw, and straight, white teeth framed by full, soft lips—lips that she couldn’t help but want to suck on. Again.

The song ended but neither of them released the other. His eyes…she was lost in those pools of blue and green.

How had she missed the flecks of silver that were sprinkled atop the blue and green? The silver specks added an icy, cool hue to the irises, but, as if watching them transform, the silver turned to gray, and his eyes grew dark with…something. Desire, maybe?

A couple brushed past them, exiting the dance floor, but still, they didn’t separate. His gaze was so intense; she licked her lips and started to pull away, but Caleb held her firm.

“Not yet,” he breathed, so quietly that only she could hear him. The music started again, this time a deep, lusty rhythm that matched her beating heart. “Try to relax this time; let go and enjoy it.”

She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Letting him lead her into the next dance was natural—like breathing. It wasn’t as if she could have said no. For some reason, her damn throat couldn’t seem to muster up the energy to even try to speak. She simply gave in, and did as he asked: let go and enjoyed it.

I’ve received two awards this week from three lovely ladies. Thank you Valerie, Stephanie, and Jemi, I’m both thrilled and flattered!

Valerie over at I Should Be Writing has given me a present: The Over the Top Award. Yay! Valerie rocks! If you don’t know Valerie, you should. She’s got a terrific blog with tons of advise and updates on her life as a writer. Seriously, check her out. Seriously!

Stephanie, at Hatshepsut: The Writing of a Novel also presented me with The Over the Top award! How cool is that?! I’ve just recently come across Stephanie’s blog, and let me tell you, I’m impressed! Her latest posting (okay, her 2nd to latest post) was about editing her MS and was really good–and funny! I’m going to be stalking you for a while now, Stephanie. I apologize ahead of time… 🙂

Now, I don’t know if I’d wear the apron, but I totally dig the award anyways. It’s just too cute. This one is definitely going on my wall of awards (you know, the right sidebar of my blog). haha!

Rules: Answer the following questions with Single Word answers then pass this along to 5 other bloggers. Make sure you let them know about it though.Your Cell Phone? EnvyYour Hair? CrazyYour Mother? Loving
Your Father? AmazingYour Favourite Food? DessertYour Dream Last Night? Monkey!Your Favourite Drink? Dr. PepperYour Dream/Goal? PublishedWhat Room Are You In? BedroomYour Hobby? WritingYour Fear? CockroachesWhere Do You See Yourself In Six Years? MotherWhere Were You Last Night? HomeSomething That You Aren’t? In-shapeMuffins? eck.Wish List Item? gift-cardsWhere Did You Grow Up? HogwartsLast Thing You Did? Watched “Dog the Bounty Hunter”What Are You Wearing? PJsYour TV? A&EYour Pets? FatFriends? NoisyYour Life? OngoingYour Mood? BetterMissing Someone? noVehicle? TemperamentalSomething You Aren’t Wearing? SocksYour Favourite Store? BordersYour Favourite Colour? BlueWhen Was The Last Time You Laughed? TodayLast Time You Cried? YesterdayYour Best Friend? KellyOne Place You Go To Over And Over Again? Home
Facebook? Twitter.Favourite Place To Eat? Out

The Circle of Friends Award has been passed on to me by Jemi Fraser at Just Jemi! Thank you, Jemi! I love my online writer friends so this award is perfect! Blogging and Twittering (#amwritingparty hells yeah!) have really helped keep my spirits up with this whole writing thing 😉

Jemi has been a friend since I started this whole blogging thing. She’s a sweetheart who reads whatever crap I write and comments no matter how stupid my post was. And seriously, what more can a blogger ask for? Nothing–I know! There’s nothing worse than someone like me–a lurker. I read a lot of blogs, but I’m pretty bad at that whole commenting thing. (I know, I know. So shoot me) So, to someone like me, Jemi is a freakin’ goddess! Visit her blog, follow, and comment because Jemi is a gem (lame? Nah…).

So, I’m going to pass this one onto a few of my writer friends with tons of love. And yes–I do know that some of you have already received this award but come on! Its the CIRCLE OF FRIENDS and (though it sucks for you) you’re my friend. Consider it your punishment for speaking to me.

Oh, yeah…I have one last piece of business to attend to tonight. Carolina Valdez Miller, Sara McClung, and Alexandra Shostak have been having some fun posting *fake* book covers for their blogs. After taking a sneak peek at mine, Carol has convinced me to blog my WIP’s fake book cover. This is Book One of my Immortal Series (which I have renamed to Nightling Series) and no, I don’t have an actual name for book. Like I said, it’s a work in progress.

Christmas is coming, and coming fast! I’ve been busy this last week getting ready for it, but I still haven’t finished all of my shopping. Since I haven’t had much time to sit down and write, my brain has been running in overdrive to try to make up for the loss of exerted creativity. In other words, the voices have started screaming (in lieu of their usual mutterings). I’ll be at the store, browsing through the latest and greatest, looking like your average Christmas-shopping crazy person. But on the inside, I’ve completely checked out. My mind is a maze of plot-lines, juicy conflicts, and character issues. I swear, I think I might even hear myself mumbling from time to time…

I’ve got Kate and Caleb in some lover’s quarrel (so out of sync for the holidays, don’t you think?) at the same time that I have my Dark Goddess musing on the details of her newest plan for world domination. Then, I’ve got a group of rogue Immortals who are feeling extra left out and incredibly needy (even though they don’t make their debut until book six–that’s right book six, and they’re already bitching at me!)

But that isn’t all. I’ve been working on my plot (which I’ll be blogging about in the next couple of posts) so I have what if I do this, or what if I do that‘s competing with irate Rogues, quarrelsome couples, and a Dark Lord-ess with a hard-on for taking over the world. And that’s not even counting the characters who just turned traitors and are deciding on their best course of action for ambushing the Vampire General!

Peachy, just peachy. Why do I suddenly have flashbacks to my sixteenth birthday at the DMV? Oh yeah, that’s right, “Everybody take a number and wait your turn.” Order would be such a handy little tool to have at my disposal. Too bad my brain doesn’t do order. I picture my characters taking their number, then glancing between the paper slip and me with a look of are-you-effing-kidding-me writing on their faces. It’s sad that I’m amused by the visual…

On one side, this whole “bonanza” of mental goodies is awesome. I’m coming up with some quality ideas. Plot lines are a necessity in my world, and conflict is as important as romance in my novels. If my writing is in short supply, my idea-pool is overflowing.

On the other hand, I think my brain might explode from all of its recent activity. While I’m not exactly aware of any overactive-brain related deaths, I won’t rule out the possibility–especially when the idea of it happening to me seems so real.

But enough about my up-and-coming implosion; I do have something to blog about today, and it will only take a few short sentences, so get ready–I wouldn’t want you to miss it!

I save each chapter in its own Word document, so I don’t necessarily know how many words are in my MS at any given time. In the chapter, yes. In the MS, no–unless of course I take the time to add up all the different files, which is precisely what I did. And I was shocked to discover that I’ve been quite the busy little bee. My current word count for “Book 1” of the Immortal Series is at an unbelievable 35,822–and it completely snuck up on me!

I really don’t know why I’m shocked by this–it isn’t as if I don’t write four-thousand-word chapters–but I am. It probably has something to do with the fact that when writing, I only look at the word count for each individual chapter, and that never goes above six thousand. To see the numbers 35,822 flash on the screen almost seems like some cruel kind of joke. But it isn’t. I know because I added the numbers…

…three separate times.

So yay! Go me! I’m “29%” done with my WIP, which is still–sadly–nameless.

When writing, there are two basic elements that make up a novel: plot and characters. These two elements must coexist—and coexist well—for the book to be anything worth reading. And let’s face it, why bother writing something that no one wants to read? It’s the plotlines and the characters that hold a reader’s attention. They are the glue that not only binds the story together, but connects the story with its audience.

I have a love/hate relationship with the plotlines of my books. Out of all of the elements that go into novel writing, it’s the plot that is my Achilles heel. I constantly worry that the plot is missing something, that it could be better. Or—when I’m having a particularly bad day of writing—that it’s absurd. While plot-holes can be patched up, a bad plot is seldom able to be revived.

I’ve been planning to write a blog post on plotting for the last few weeks. After all, It only makes sense that I write about the devil I know best. After reading a blog called Why You Should Interview Your Characters by Carolina Valdez Miller, I realized two things.

One—I don’t struggle with character relationships in my books. If anything, my characters keep the story alive. My books are (mostly all) character driven. They are about people and their journeys to the other side of the rainbow.

And two—obviously—plots and characters go together like babies and diapers. Basically—put the diaper on the kid’s head and you’re in for a messy time. But, put the diaper where it goes, and one element complements the other. When I look at it this way, I can really see that the more you know one, the better you will understand the other.

Plotting

I’ve spend countless hours plotting and re-plotting my novels. And I know, I’ll be re-plotting again and again before I’ve finished my currrent WIP. To date, my two plot boards look like this:

I know–I’m not the most organized person on the planet, but it works for me.

I’ll add new notes to the boards as they come to me because I need everything written out or I start to feel lost and overwhelmed. It helps when I can look over and see where I am and where I need to go.

Character Interviews

First off, I’ll be interviewing Kate, one of the main character of my current WIP, “Book 1” or the Immortal Series. Here goes…

I waited for Kate for about ten minutes in a small but comfortable private sitting room in the vampire palace. I knew she’d be late—I’d been warned by several of my characters that the reclusive assassin wouldn’t willingly submit to an interview. But, luckily for me, the King himself had extended my invitation to her, making it impossible for her to refuse.

Of course, that didn’t mean she’d have to be generous about it…

When she did arrive, she smiled politely—though it didn’t reach her eyes—and took a seat across from me on an antique settee that coordinated perfectly with the armchair I had chosen.

Me: “Hello Kate, how are you today?”

Kate: “Busy; I’m getting close to nailing another Dark Cell. No offense to you or anything, I just don’t see why you couldn’t have found someone else to interview. I don’t have time to be back in Crehmor, let alone sitting down for an interview.”

I was expecting this kind of response from her. I knew she hated the vampire city of Crehmor and wouldn’t be thrilled to be here, so I’d prepared myself for this line of argument.

Me: “You’re a main character in the upcoming book, Kate. Everyone wants to know a little about you, including myself.”

Kate: “I’m here because Gabriel told me to come, so ask your questions so I can get back to work. There is a war going on, or haven’t you noticed?”

Me: “Speaking of the war, what part do you play in it?”

Kate: “As you well know, I’m the General of the Assassins—the Assassins being a branch of the Vampiric Army. I work undercover to collect intelligence against our enemy, the Shade. Once I, or one of my people, infiltrate a Cell, we join up with the Slayers—the other branch of the army—and take them out. Then, we move on to another Cell.”

Me: “Sounds like dangerous work.”

Kate: “It can be.”

Me: “Don’t you ever worry about the things that could happen to you while you’re undercover?”

Kate: “Not much. I’ve thought about it, sure, but someone’s got to do it. Might as well be me—I don’t have anything to lose.”

Kate: Sighs and slouches back in her seat before answering. “My father was killed when I was a child. Micah had been very close to him, and he became my guardian. He’s…like an uncle to me.” Realizing where I had been going with this, she added, “Micah knows the risks of what I do. He also has his own life to live.”

Me: “I see. So you take on the tough assignments? So the soldiers with families don’t have to?”

Kate: “I’d rather risk my life than the lives of my men.”

Me: “So there’s no one in your life? No boyfriends or special someones?”

Kate: “No; I don’t get attached to people.”

Me: “No one?”

Kate: “No one.”

Me: “I’ve heard the gossip around the city. They say that you and the King’s cousin—the King’s Right Hand—are involved?”

Kate: “Caleb and I are acquainted only through our work; we’re both on the High Council. That is our only connection.”

Me: “He is quite attractive…”

Kate: “Your point?”

Me: “Well. He seems like he’s interested—”

Kate: “Well he’s not; and neither am I. Are we finished here?”

Me: “Not quite; I have a few more questions. You’re a legend throughout the immortal world—an icon for young girls. Why is it that you are afraid of relationships? Even the soldiers in your unit say that you can be cold as ice. They say you’re afraid of attachments.”

My bluntness must have taken her off guard. She glared at me and I added a mental note to add “deadly as explosion” to her bio…

Kate: “I can’t afford attachments, Ms. Reese. My job isn’t just a danger to my life, but to all those around me—”

Me: “Your father was killed in this war. Are you afraid to put your own loved ones through that pain if you are kill as well?”

Kate: “My—that has nothing to do with this interview. Leave my father out of this. As for your little observation, no, I’m not afraid of dying.”

Me: “No, you aren’t afraid of dying—we’ve established that. But that wasn’t what I asked. Are you afraid of getting involved because of the work you do?”

Kate: “Next question.”

Me: “After you answer my last one.”

After a long pause, Kate stood and smiled.

Kate: “It’s been a pleasure, Ms. Reese. I hope you got what you needed for your report. I’ll tell a servant you’ll be leaving now so they can escort you—

Me: “Oh, don’t bother. I have one last interview today…with Caleb. He should be here shortly, if he isn’t already waiting in the hall.”

The look she gave me could have triggered heart attacks in the elderly. I, however, stood and extended my hand.

I know its been a while since I last wrote, but I’ve been too busy writing to click over to the Internet to update my Blog. But, I’ve taken a timeout tonight to do just that.

I’ve spend the last week and a half rearranging the order of some of the event of my book. Then I tweeked it a little more. It’s been a good change, if not a slow go of it. Still, I’m happy with the results.

Technically, I guess I’m back to writing chapter 8–but that’s only because I moved the previous chapter 8 to be chapter 10 and chapter 9 became chapter 11. I know…I know. It’s even more confusing when you’re the one doing to rearranging. Just one wrong move and POW, I accidentally delete a chapter. But don’t worry, that hasn’t happened in the last couple months.

I’ve outlined the next ten chapters, so I’m pretty excited. I know what’s to happen in ever chapter…I just have to write it out. And of course, figure out the details that link them all together. That’s something I do while writing though. It makes things a bit easier for me, and I get more of a “flow” when I do that.

Last night, I stayed up late writing, and while I didn’t get a lot written word-count-wise, I did get a really good quality scene written out. I was pretty ecstatic last night–especially after all the whining I did to my main squeeze over the past few days (love you Josh!). The scene went over a critical romantic choice. I wrote three sections back and forth between point of views. I would have written this entry last night, but I was exhausted when I finally closed my laptop–it was 4:30am!

Tonight I plan to finish up the last scene at the ball/dinner party and make my way into the next chapter! Of course, that’s been my plan for how long? Right…

I’m about an hour behind my schedule tonight. An unexpected project came up with my brother, the kindergartner. The project was, of course, due tomorrow. Perfect. We had to pull out the craft box and dress up Clifford the Big Red Dog for Halloween. F-ing perfect. Like I really had time for that… We actually had a really fun time together while working on E Man’s project. Here’s what we ended up with

…sort of a cross between a superhero and a dominatrix (the latter was unintentional). The mask just turned out that way. I would have fixed if, but I was in a hurry. Plus, it was a peel-and-stick foam and we’d already stuck it to the Clifford cutout by the time I made the connection…

As you can see, we gave Clifford a studded collar out of jingle bells. (The giant E on the cape is E Man’s initial)

I am rather proud of the poor thing. He can’t help that he’s not perfect.

It’s way past time to get back to my writing. Once again, I’ve taken too much time this past week to read or watch the new episodes of Bones, NCIS, CSI, and Lie to Me. Go figure… I’m a TV and book junkie. I read books 1-3 of the Texas Lone Star Series by Susan Mallery, which was of course superb. But now, back to my actual writing.

I did a tiny bit of plotting last night and am starting to get somewhere with a few loose ends. They aren’t quite right just yet, but they will be soon enough. I wanted to write yesterday or at least update my blog, but my right hand was not cooperating. Carpel tunnel (or something with similar symptoms) had my hand and wrist sore and achy. It was even swollen. It isn’t nearly as bad today; it’s a little sore but that’s it.

I’m working on the “ball” scene still, which just goes to show how much I haven’t been writing. Unfortunately, my mind has been in another frame of mind entirely. I have been thinking about the battle scene that I have coming about three-fourths way through the first book. Keep in mind, I’m not even a fourth a way into it… Still, I’m the kind of writer who skips around and writes what on her mind. I just haven’t given in to the temptation just yet; I’m really trying to stay in the “ball” frame of mind. 😛

Oh yeah! Speaking of battles, I found this picture online of the Army of Darkness. Pretty funny.

After being worked and overworked at the golf course, I’m finally back in the swing of things. I know it has been over a week since my last post, and I do apologize for disappearing, but it couldn’t be helped. One of the girls at work decided to stop coming to work, and I got stuck having to pull up the slack. Now, on to happier topics…

I’ve been doing some research lately on balls. No, not bouncy balls, soccer balls, or footballs but actual formal, dancing balls. You see, my latest chapter has been set in a ball. My characters are all required to attend (even if they don’t want to) and while writing the rough draft, I wanted to get some nice details down about what my heroine is wearing to the big event, and I’ll admit, I might have gotten a little bit carried away.

Now, without giving too much away in terms of her looks and personality, Kate (my heroine) is a beautiful vampire with flowing, dark hair and an hourglass figure that I would kill for. And I really wanted to make Kate sizzle while at the ball so I put her in a red dress–which will look absolutely stunning on her soft colored skin and in comparison to her dark hair. Easy enough, right? Well, then I decided to throw in a few extra details, maybe just for the RD, maybe not. Okay, no biggie–so she’s wearing Valentino. No big deal, she’s a rich immortal who makes her living as a highly lethal assassin–she’s got the money to blow on Valentino and his best friends, Prada and Gucci, right?

Would it really be so bad if I gave her an updo and weaved baby pearls and crystals into her hair while fitting her with a silver clutch and matching Charles David heels? Oh, the heels! They’re the best part of the whole ensemble. Simple yet elegant. A perfect match to the dress I had in mind.

Well, as if all that wasn’t enough, I just wasn’t satisfied. I needed to see what kind of shoes would actually go with my made-up Valentino dress…so, I did a little online shoe shopping, just browsing to get an idea. I’m such a visual person that it helps me to write better when I have a little inspiration to go off of.

Well, I found my inspiration–a Charles David creation:

Being the sick person that I am, this shoe gave me the motivation I needed to finish the ball scene. I guess it goes to show, the devil’s in the details.

If you know me, you must realize how crazy this is to me–I hate wearing shoes. I absolutely loathe wearing heels. If I must wear shoes, I choose flip flops. Crazy wear you get your inspiration, huh?

Between my busy work schedule and my lovely beau, I’ve spent the last few days not writing. I did some re-plotting of the Immortals series I’m working on, as well as on the two other books I’ve been playing with in bits and pieces. To be honest, I didn’t plan to work on plotting my two other books just yet–I’m not quite ready to focus my attention on them because of how well my first book in the Immortals is going–but, seeing as how “book one” was pissed off and not speaking to me, I switched my attention to first Bitten, and then to a Young Adult book I’m toying with, which remains nameless…

As it turned out, switing my attention actually was a good thing. I suppose the best way to explain it is that it “opened me up” and made me more compliant in dealing with the issues I was having in my plot with “book one”. When I turned my attention back to the Immortals, poof–problems solved.

So, in a miraculous stroke of luck, fate, or divine intervention, I knocked out three birds with one stone. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Now, since I just mentioned it, I should point out that no, my books are not actually named. I happen to be the worse writer ever at inventing book names. If I had my way, my book series would be titled A, B, C, and so on, while the books themselves would be numbered 1, 2, 3, etc…

I also spent the last two days (while not working or with my fiance) reading a magnificant new book (that’s actually been out for a few years). The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason was bloody brilliant–no pun intented. Now, for anyone who has actually taken a look at my library and seen the number of books–no, I have not read all of them, and no, there is not enough time to read them all. However, Josh (because you know I’m talking to you), If I did not purchase books at random, I would never have come across The Gardella Vampire Chronicles, and therefore, would not be so completely amazed by how expertly put together Gleason’s “world” is. So, ha! There is a very good reason to let me indulge in my Borders addiction–I truely enjoy it.

Now that’s it Monday, it’s time to get back to work with my writing…
Laters

I’ve finally finished chapter seven!!! YAY! I cannot express how happy I am! Truly I feel such a huge relief. Of course, that will only last until I start chapter eight…but chapter eight should be a little easier, at least I hope it will be.
But seriously, back to chapter seven—wow. Talk about stressful. This chapter totally pissed me off. It’s a good chapter, don’t get me wrong. Very informative, yada, yada. But I just never thought I’d get to the end. And even now, I guess I’m not totally done yet–I have a few notes on the side that say things like “fluff it up” and “add details later”. Yeah, so I guess I’ll get back to those later–way later, after the chapter’s had a few weeks to sit and stew.

So far, I’m at 22,692 words and am seven chapters in.

I actually had most of it done last night, I just got too tired to finish up the last itty bitty section, so I put it off until today. Even baby kitty was tired… Poor Simon…

Slice of [my] Life

Slice of [my] Life is a blog that I made to document my journey through novel writing. Blogging is new to me, as is the idea of having my thought processes available during the writing process, instead of just at the very end.

This Blog goes hand in hand with my Blogger Blog. All blogs post the same content–they just use different platforms to reach maximum readers.